(1) As soon as, after the commencement of this Act, Government shall by notification, establish a Commission to be known as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission. (2) The Commission shall be a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal, with powers to acquire and dispose of property both movable and immovable and shall be the said name sue and be sued. (3) The main office of the Commission shall be at Peshawar and shall have such other regional offices as Government may establish.

(1) The Commission shall perform such functions and exercise such powers as may be required to ensure the safety of patient and health staff and to improve quality of public and private healthcare services.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of sub-section (1), the Commission shall,—

(a) set standards or requirements for registration and licensing of health care establishments that ensure patient and health staff safety;

(b) registration of all health care establishments and issuance of license defining scope and extent of services to be provided;

(c) enforce minimum standards of patient and health staff safety in public and private sectors;

(d) play technical and advisory, educative and disciplinary role to support the registered and licensed health care establishments to improve quality of services;

(e) regulate the registered and licensed health care establishments in public and private health sectors through health regulation tools; certification, peer review, clinical governance, self-regulation or any other tool nationally or internationally recognized and accepted;

(f) grant, renew, suspend and cancel licenses in the prescribed manner to health care establishments and to vary terms and conditions and purposes of the license;

(g) enquire and investigate into mal-administration, malpractice and failures in the provision of private healthcare services and issue consequential advice and orders;

(h) impose and collect fees and charges on registration, licensing or for any other services rendered to health care establishments, such as trainings on guidelines, standards, etc., under this Act;

(i) impose and collect fines on violation, breach or non-compliance of the provisions of this Act, rules, regulations and standards;

(j) advocate rights and responsibilities of recipients and providers of the private health care services;

(k) hold seminars, conferences and meetings on developing awareness about provision of high quality private healthcare services;

(l) co-ordinate, liaise and network with any person, agency or institution for the purpose of this Act;

(m) appoint, engage, authorize and terminate employees, consultants, advisors, attorneys, inspection teams, surveyors, contractors, agents and experts on such terms and conditions as it deems necessary and assign, delegate or entrust them with such functions and powers as are expedient for the performance of functions of the Commission;

(n) take measures for the welfare of the employees of the Commission as well as its all registered members;

(o) devise mechanism to deal with quackery;

(p) to monitor service performance against prescribed standards;

(q) perform any other function assigned to it by Government from time to time.

The Commission may exercise the same powers as are vested in a Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 1908), in respect of the following matters:

(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;

(b) compelling the production of documents;

(c) receiving evidence on affidavits; and

(d) issuing Commission for the examination of witnesses.

(4) Government may, as and when it considers necessary, advice the Commission on matters of policy.

(1) An aggrieved person may, within sixty days from the date of knowledge of the cause of action, file a complaint against a healthcare service provider or healthcare establishment by submitting an application in writing supported by an affidavit, national identity card number and address of the aggrieved person. (2) The Commission shall not entertain an anonymous or pseudonymous complaint against a private health care service provider or healthcare establishment. (3) The Commission shall investigate in a transparent manner, the complaints relating to quality of health services, health services or system and medical negligence. (4) The Commission shall prescribe the procedure for the conduct of investigation to be carried out by the Commission under this Act.